mean and beggarly office. Against this he would balance and outweigh all that the patriot, the philanthropist, the friend of man, and of the progress of the human race should prize. Again I repeat in tones of warning, away with party in this day of the country's great trial.

And better than to have one gray hair introduced into the head of the republic, in the day of its youth and vigor and power, would it be to have its whole resources tested to the extremest limit. Much as we deplore the sacrifice of individual and national means, and the risk and infinitely greater sacrifice of life, we must meet this crisis like men. In proportion as the storm increases, in proportion as the waves run higher, must we brace ourselves to breast the shock. We must not permit anarchy to drive its ebon car over the country, until the last man and the last dollar are gone. No. Let the determination of the people to crush out the rebellion be made manifest by their united action; and let treason be driven to its last refuge. I see clearly through this day's business. I see this rebellion, gaunt and haggard, covered all over with crime, driven to the last extremity-its leaders in the pillory of public execration-deserted by its "peace" friends, who have fled for safety. I see those wretched men falling victims to the laws they have outraged. I see them led to execution, or confined in dungeons where the iron enters deep into their souls, or pale and trembling refugees, fleeing their native land for safety, with the mark and taint of treason upon them forever. And I hear a great voice lifted up, the voice of the American people, saying "Amen."

From this day forth we should make no pause against traitors. Let the old men counsel, and let the young men gird them for the war. Let fair women, at the fire-side altar, plead for the cause, and encourage lover and husband, son and brother, to go forth to mighty deeds. Let little children, by their claims for protection, and as entitled to share in the heritage of hope, of which rebellion would rob them, stimulate the work. And when all is accomplished; when the war is over and the rebellion subdued, we will ask the "peace" men to come back and tell us if they object to what has been done; if they object to the defence and maintenance of the Union and the preservation of the Constitution. And then, if they wish, VOL. II.-11

let them bring out their rattle-box of party and play with it all their lives. After the country has made sure that it has a government, we will begin to think about dividing into parties concerning its administration.

It is our purpose first to vindicate the strength of the government and the integrity of the Constitution. This we will do or perish. For myself, I feel as if speaking akin to the spirit of prophecy. "I have been young and now am old, yet saw I never the righteous forsaken." I have, by the favor of my fellowcitizens, stood in the high places of the government, and have been the peer, officially, of the greatest men America has produced. Yet have I never felt such pride in my position as when permitted to invoke my fellow-citizens, as I now do, to rally to the support of the Constitution; and I had rather perform that office than to enjoy every place and every honor that the government can bestow. In this day of the country's emergency, I am confident and hopeful. I see the day-star of promise in the distance. This contest will result as loyal men would have it result. The American people are beginning to speak and beginning to act, and notwithstanding the political prejudice which has pervaded the country, like the frogs and lice of Egypt coming into the beds, and ovens, and kneadingtroughs, it will be found that a multitude, greater almost than man can number, overcoming the flood-tide of prejudice, think alike, will act together, and sweep away rebellion and cover those who have connived at it with shame and confusion. Courage, then! courage! Onward against rebellion is the word! Onward, to strengthen the bonds of the administration; to put down rebellion; to re-establish law and order throughout our whole territory to its remotest boundary.

I thank you, fellow-citizens, for the patience with which you bave listened to the long and desultory train of remarks in which I have indulged. As you encouraged me with cries of "go on," so now I say to you "go on," in this great and good work. I may use words to rally men to duty, but you, my friends, can make my exhortation an embodied success. You can and will rally and discharge your whole duty to God, your country, your fellow-men and to posterity. I bid you "God speed," in the fellowship of the Constitution. Good night.

SPEECH

DELIVERED AT A UNION MASS MEETING HELD AT FORT GREENE, IN THE CITY OF BROOKLYN, N. Y., October 24, 1861.

MR. PRESIDENT, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN-I greet you upon this classic and consecrated ground, in the name of our cherished Union. The time for discussion-free, earnest, and bold discussion-has not ceased, as has been often suggested; nor will it cease, until every honest citizen in the loyal States shall be convinced of and aroused to his duty; until ignorance shall be informed; until partisan efforts shall all be merged in union for the sake of the Union; until traitors shall be shut out from society to indulge in self-communion; until a treasonable press shall be silenced, and until the Stars and Stripes shall float again everywhere throughout the land on the ruins of a dark and damning rebellion. If, during the autumn of 1860, an intelligent stranger in the New World could have entered the harbor of New York, and seen her "bays and broad-armed ports, where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;" have looked upon the magnificent ships arriving from every sea, and others outward bound to every clime; have contemplated the emporium of the New World, soon to be the emporium of both Old and New, with its vast contributions of commerce, its untold wealth, its measureless enterprise, its majestic grandeur, its mechanic arts, its mercantile renown, its financial powers, collecting and disbursing the New World's revenue; have witnessed its refinement and social culture, its institutions of religion, charity, and learning; have cast his eyes over the Empire State, seen its other strong and populous and thrifty cities and towns, springing up from the harbors upon the seaboard, along its noble rivers and upon its inland seas; have considered its system of improvements, uniting the waters of the West with the Atlantic, its railroads checkering far and near; have calculated its agricul

tural elements and strength; beheld its cattle upon a thousand hills, and its four millions of free, and healthy, and happy people, he would have involuntarily exclaimed, "Where can you find so sublime a view, so interesting an anticipation!" And when his enraptured vision had contemplated all this, if he had yet a desire to look further into the "wide abyss of possibility," and had passed beyond the boundaries of the greatest free State that ever had existence to the broad field of our National Union; stretched out upon our broad lakes, ranged over the boundless prairies of the West-the world's golden granary, the store-house of hungry Europe-and calculated their productions, when he had learned to number the sands of the sea; listened to the hum of New England's machinery; told us of the mineral elements the Keystone bears in her bosom; threaded the Potomac, the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Missouri, and their tributaries; viewed the Gulf of Mexico, and estimated the productive power of the planting States; and then, as the human eye is never satisfied, leaped, if he could, the Rocky Mountains, and stood upon the shore of the world's greatest ocean, and there, again, found the same enterprising people, found the same irrepressible energy, the same refinement and culture, the same institutions and States, replete in all the elements which give strength to a people; cities which have sprung up as if by magic, an industry which is thrice rewarded, the earth teeming with her choicest fruits, and sparkling with golden treasures, which would almost sate the greed of avarice itself; and had numbered upon this vast area, embracing almost every variety of soil, climate, and production, thirty-four free and independent States, drawn together by a common impulse, in a holy and happy Union, with boundless and populous territories, engaged in erecting other States, and thirty-five millions of people enjoying all, and blessed as no people were ever blessed before, basking in Heaven's sunlight of prosperity, such as never before rested upon God's children here below; and when he had looked upon this with wonder and admiration, and his heart had thanked the Giver of all good that he so cared for, and sheltered and protected poor erring man, he would involuntarily have exclaimed, 66 "What more could mortal desire?" And could that same stranger come again now, finding this same free, thrice-blessed,

and happy people, turned from the pursuits and arts of peace to the horrors of an unnatural, civil and intestine war, these States dissevered and belligerent, he would be shocked that in one short year such beauty had been turned to desolation, and he would exclaim, " An enemy hath done this!”

The sec

Many have sought in vain for the cause of the rebellion, and must continue so to seek, for it was without cause. tional controversies which have prevailed, though they served as an apology for it, did not even contribute to its existence. The rebellion was the fruit of conspiracy; the conspiracy was the production of mad and mean and insatiable ambition. It originated in a desire for rule, and was quickened by the determination to cover evidences of robbery and plunder. Its prime movers were few, but it is apparent that it was encouraged by many to whom it had not fully committed its secrets. It made the election of Mr. Lincoln the occasion for inaugurating the rebellion, without any well-grounded pretence that it was the cause. Its leaders-who will find no parallel in shameless and infamous atrocity, not even in Satan, the great arch-rebel-aimed at power, and pomp, and consequence; its active followers and voluntary participants, to conceal bankruptcy in morals, politics, or business; its sympathizers in the loyal States were made up of those who, between mental blindness and political prejudice, were unable to see or comprehend anything beyond a mere partisan scramble; of cross-road caucus wire-pullers, who feared to lose their high dignities and their rations, upon which they got higher still, if they should not keep the question within the traces of party; of lobby politicians, who, having long gorged themselves upon the offal of unclean legislation, were willing to see the Union imperilled, as a thief or burglar welcomes a conflagration in a city, that he may dive more deep in plunder; of seedy and faded office-seekers, who, like Micawber, had long waited for something to turn up, and believed the rebellion would turn it; of a few croaking, diseased, worn-out, and dying presses, in the market without bidders, wanting principles, wanting bread, wanting notice, wanting consequence, wanting character, wanting everything but baseness, with nothing to lose, but everything to gain. These combined elements, especially in this State, in the hands of a repudiated regency, hive stood as the advocates, apologists, and